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I’m not a big fan of cartoons produced in the Japanese-styled Anime or Manga aesthetic. I know there are a lot out there that are. Some of those fans write for this very website. Still, growing up, I was a huge fan of Star Blazers and Robotech. Silver Hawks was a pretty cool show and Akira was amazing. These programs, and a few others, were able to make the jump across the Pacific and reach North America households to much acclaim. More importantly, they fuelled the imagination of kids and got them interested in Anime and Manga. Maybe that’s why I like the DC Entertainment-produced, Anime-styled, Batman: Gotham Knight, released in 2008, so much. We got to see a favourite character from a radically different perspective.

Not to be outdone, Marvel Entertainment took that same idea and expanded upon it, creating four separate, 12-episode series’, based on their most popular comic book characters.

A few of us Biff Bam Poppers have watched the new Xavier Gens film The Divide lately, and I think we’ve all come away with different opinions on the post-nuclear war flick staring Michael Biehn, Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia and Rosanna Arquette. With the film fresh in my mind (and my eyeballs), I thought I’d give you my ambivalent take on it.

The Divide finds eight people living (trapped?) in a fall out shelter underneath their apartment building, one created and maintained by the buildings superintendent, Mickey (Michael Biehn). As the days go by, we watch the group dynamic unravel as our survivors (victims?) realize that there is no way out for them. What comes next is murder, dismemberment, rape and more unpleasantness. Suffice to say, The Divide isn’t for everyone.